S.C. Woman Who Drove Children Into Ocean Suffered From Mental Disorder, Lawyers Claim

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Attorneys say a mental disorder kept a pregnant South Carolina woman from knowing the difference between right and wrong at the time she’s accused of driving her minivan into the Atlantic Ocean with her children inside.

Defense attorneys for 32-year-old Ebony Wilkerson filed a motion of intent to use an insanity defense. Public Defender James Purdy told the Daytona Beach News-Journal Monday that experts will testify the 32-year-old from North Charleston, South Carolina, had a mental disease or defect in March, when she drove into the surf off Daytona Beach in Florida.